11:48 a.m. ET, November 4, 2023
Up to a million people have fled to southern Gaza, putting humanitarian aid under strain, US envoy says
By CNN’s Jennifer Hansler People drive with their belongings after evacuating their home in Rafah, Gaza, on November 1. Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images
The number of people who have fled from the north of Wadi Gaza to the southern part of the enclave is estimated at 800,000 “to perhaps a million,” the U.S. special envoy for humanitarian affairs in the Middle East said on Saturday – a mass relocation that The humanitarian situation has exacerbated problems that are only expected to increase as more people flee.
Envoy David Satterfield said there must be a “safe and sustained movement” of aid, not only from Egypt’s Rafah border crossing to Gaza, but also “to places of need in the south.”
“And those need points are increasing as more people move south,” he added.
The ability to move aid has increased exponentially, particularly in the last week, from “pretty much zero in terms of the ability to move humanitarian assistance into Gaza through the Rafah Corridor,” Satterfield said, but reiterated that even the current one Number of aid trucks stopping It is not enough to complete the crossing per day.
Although the U.S. believes the current daily flow of trucks into Gaza is sustainable, “it is challenged by the environment on the ground in southern Gaza,” Satterfield said, noting that earlier in the week, shipments of basic supplies and supplies to United Nations warehouses began food had been broken into.
“There was … an environment in Gaza that allowed more normal business life, cooking gas, cooking oil, food and essentials to move in. That is not the situation now,” he said.
Accommodation is also a problem, he added.
“There are still 350,000 or 400,000 in the north. If these people – some of them – come to the south, it will increase the burden and increase the demand even further,” he added.
The Israeli military has urged civilians in Gaza to move south as it intensifies its air and ground attacks on Gaza City and the north of the Gaza Strip. International aid and human rights groups have criticized Israel’s calls for residents to evacuate the north without pausing in fighting and while roads and other infrastructure are badly damaged.
Possible field hospitals and ships: The United States is considering setting up field hospitals in southern Gaza, Satterfield said Saturday, and Israel is negotiating with countries to station hospital ships off the Gaza coast.
Satterfield said the U.S. is talking to organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders about setting up tent hospitals.
“Hiring employees – which we all see as being in the realm of the ‘very feasible’ – requires assurances that employees, international employees, can not only come in but also leave,” he said. “And of course that lies with what we call de facto authorities.”
Israeli officials are talking with allies such as the United Kingdom and France about large hospital ships, he said, also taking safety and security into account.